It started like a rumour on Friday, October 5, 2012, but gradually, it became a reality that four students of the University of Port Harcourt had been killed at Omuokere-Aluu Community, Rivers State.
The students are; Biringa Chiadika Lordson, Year-Two Theatre Arts; Ugonna Kelechi Obuzor, Year-Two Geology and Mike Lloyd Toku, Year-Two Civil Engineering, while the status of the fourth victim, Tekena Erikena is yet to be confirmed.
Lloyd and Ugonna, apart from being cousins, also found a relationship in rap, a music genre, which was made popular in the United States. As upcoming artistes, they both won a rapping contest organised by Silverbird Television in Port Harcourt, a few years back.
Although, Aluu is in Ikwerre local government area of the state, it is less than 30 metres from the main campus of the University, which is at Choba in Obio/Akpor local government area of the state.
Aluu can be described as an off-campus suburb, where more than 50 per cent of students of the University of Port Harcourt live side by side with indigenes of the community, who are predominantly of the Ikwerre ethnic stock.
Different accounts have been giving by different people, including those who were at the scene of the incident, in relation to the actual reason why members of the Omuokere-Aluu vigilante killed the four youths after parading them round the community naked. While one of the accounts had it that they were armed robbers who went to rob residents of the community of their laptops and phones before they were caught at about 4.30 am, another account said they were cultists that had been terrorising the community.
Another account, which sounded more authentic, was the one that said that the four boys had gone to demand for a debt owed one of them, Ugonna, by a resident of the community and in the process, a fight ensued between them and the man they went to meet. According to the account, the boys decided to go away with a laptop and phones belonging to their debtor in place of the money. It was at this point that the man raised alarm, shouting thieves, which prompted the vigilante to swoop on them.
According to eyewitnesses, the vigilante team, made up of mostly youths of the community took thearrested students to the palace of the traditional ruler of the community, Alhaji Hassan Welewa where the four boys, upon interrogation, allegedly gave three different stories that did not match.
The eyewitnesses said that it was at this point that Welewa, who is also a Muslim leader in the state, allegedly gave a nod to the action of members of the vigilante team, prompting the parading of the four boys round the community and their subsequent beating to death. However, the vigilante team could not succeed in setting their corpses ablaze as they planned before the arrival of policemen from the Aluu Divisional Police Headquarters, who removed the corpses and deposited them at the morgue of the University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital (UPTH), Alakahia in Obio/Akpor local government area of the state.
Following public outcry over the incident, Rivers State Governor, Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi ordered a full-scale investigation into the murder of the four promising youths. The governor, who spoke through the Commissioner for Information and Communications, Mrs. Ibim Seminitari gave an assurance that all those behind the killing of the students would be fished out and made to face the wrath of the law.
By Saturday, October 6, 2012, security agents comprising men of the Rivers State Police Command, the State Security Service (SSS) and the Joint Task Force (JTF) swooped on the community and by Sunday, October 7, 2012, no fewer than 13 persons, including the traditional ruler of the community were already in custody of the police.
Confirming the arrests in a statement, Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO) in the state, Mr. Benjamin Ugwuegbulem, a Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) said; “Rivers State Police Command unequivocally condemns the gruesome killing of four Uniport students on October 5, by irate mob from Aluu community.
“The command sympathises with the families of the slain students and also appeals to them not to take the laws into their hands. Students of the university are urged not to engage in any reprisal attack as such could lead to chaos and anarchy.
“The command has commenced investigation into the incident. Amazing success has been recorded in that regard as 13 persons, including the chief of the community suspected to have been involved in the reprehensible, barbaric act, have been arrested based on credible intelligence and video clips of the killings. Suspects are being interrogated by crack police team.”
Only last Tuesday, the Commissioner of Police, Mr. Mohammed Abdulkadir Indabawa announced that 11 out of the 13 suspects that were arrested in connection with the killing of the students have been charged while the remaining two were kept in police custody to aid security agents in their investigations.
Also, last Wednesday, security teams comprising of men of the State Police Command, the State Security Service (SSS) and 2 Amphibious Brigade, Nigerian Army, Port Harcourt, arrested five more persons near the scene of the crime in Omuokere-Aluu, thereby bringing the number of those arrested so far in connection with the murder to 18.
To Indabawa, the way the four youths were killed was barbaric as there was no justification for the mob action. He promised that the police would ensure such ugly incident does not repeat itself again in the state.
The authorities of the University declared a seven-day mourning period and suspended the planned students’ union week in honour of the murdered four and later shut down the school indefinitely following protests by students which became violent.
Apart from blocking the ever-busy East-West Road for several hours, the students, despite appeals from the Vice Chancellor of the University, Professor Joseph Ajienka and the Executive Secretary of National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), Professor Ben Angwe, over-ran Omuokere-Aluu community, burning down no fewer than 12 houses.
Already, the entire Aluu community has turned into a ghost town as residents have fled the area to avoid either being arrested by the security agents that have flooded the community or the rampaging students of the University.
A visit to the community showed that truck load of mobile policemen was spotted at one location near the scene of the killings, while over 50 other heavily armed and fierce looking operatives of the Joint Task Force, (JTF), Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), State Security Service (SSS) and other conventional policemen were seen moving round the town.
Confirming the closure of the University, the Deputy Registrar, Public Relations of UNIPORT, Dr. Williams Wodi said that students have been directed to vacate the hostels within the university immediately as the institution remained closed indefinitely.
Wodi said the decision of the university became necessary to prevent any breakdown of law and order that may result, following the killing of the four students by Aluu villagers.
He said; “The University Authority has ordered the immediate closure of the institution and directed students to vacate the hostels within the university. The decision is to prevent a breakdown of law and order on campus as a result of the killing of four students.”
To Angwe, the NHRC had received calls from the international community on the extra-judicial murder of the four students and would also monitor the trial of all the suspects involved in the sad incident to its end. He assured family members of the four and students of the University that the Commission would stand by them to see that justice was done in the case.
Apparently disturbed by the murder of the students, the Rivers State House of Assembly last Wednesday made a resolution condemning the action of the people of Omuokere-Aluu community.
The resolution followed a motion brought on the floor of the House by the member representing Omuma Constituency, Hon. Kelechi Godspower Nwogu, who regretted that students of the University went on reprisal and razed houses in the community despite warning against such act by the state governor, who also ordered a full scale investigation into the murder.
Speaker of the House, Rt. Hon. Otelemaba Daniel Amachree, who also condemned the murder of the students, urged the state government and security agencies to beef up security in the community.
Despite the claim by the Rivers State Police Command that it got alert on the incident very late, hence, its inability to respond before the students were killed, not few Nigerians were of the belief that the police never wanted to interfere in what it saw as ‘a community affair.’
To Mrs. Chinwe Biringa, mother of Chiadika, one of the murdered four undergraduate students, policemen were present during the killings. She expressed disappointment with the way and manner the policemen looked on and did nothing to stop the gruesome murder of the four boys.
Biringa said, “Eyewitnesses accounts revealed that policemen were at the scene of the incident. Besides, policemen at the police station confirmed to one of the bereaved parents who visited them that policemen were there.And the explanation they gave was that they were overwhelmed by the crowd and that they had insufficient bullets in their guns and all that thrash to confront the crowd.
“But those people were only with sticks not with guns. If they really wanted to work they would have worked. If they had done what the Joint Task Force did by firing warning shots into the air when they wanted to collect the corpses, things wouldn’t have gone awry”.
While insisting that the four murdered boys were not robbers, she said; “We don’t have security in this country. We don’t just have and our children and wards are all over the country. We are only living by God’s grace every day, because this can happen to anybody any day.
“God knows best because nothing stops Him from doing something extraordinary to save them. But may God judge all those who had a hand in the killings”.
Writing on his page on face-book, a Port Harcourt-based media practitioner, Chris Finebone said; “There are indications that the police unit at Choba came to the scene with two patrol vans as the boys were being man-handled and were warned to stay off by the villagers and the police left.
“Please, Mr. Governor, how can we trust the police when their men got to the mob in action and simply walked away without rescuing the poor lads? How can we trust the police? How?”
Perhaps, it was Finebone’s question to the governor that prompted the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) in Rivers State to call on President Goodluck Jonathan, the Police Service Commission (PSC), the Inspector-General of Police and the National Assembly to immediately sack the state Commissioner of Police for negligence over the killing of the four students.
The party also frowned at the contradictory statements emanating from the Police Commissioner, Police Public Relations Officer and the Divisional Police Officer in charge of Rumorji Division, saying it smacks of irresponsibility and unbecoming of men and officers trained to protect lives and properties.
In a statement signed by its Publicity Secretary in the state, Jerry Needam, the ACN described the attitude of the police to distress calls put across to them as not only poor, but a dereliction of duty following the failure to mobilise men and officers of the force to the scene of the murder upon receiving the distress calls.
The statement said; “While killers of these undergraduates of the University of Port Harcourt are being fished out for prosecution, the Police Commissioner, his PPRO and the DPO in Charge of Rumorji whose primary responsibility is to protect lives and property but failed to do so in this circumstance should also be queried and possibly prosecuted.
“The double speak of the PPRO is also regrettable, for misinforming the public. On one account he claimed the victims were dead before the police arrived. On another, he said his men were overpowered by the uncountable number of people at the scene that made it impossible for the police to act.
“Police officers must be held accountable to all their actions and inactions in this circumstance to guarantee adequate security in Rivers State.”
Apart from the ACN, several individuals and organisations, including the Rivers State Chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the state Councils of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC) have unequivocally condemned the murder of the students.
To the PDP, the killing of the four undergraduates was “despicable, most barbaric, chilling, and in explainable. The party expressed shock at the misfortune that cut short the precious lives of the four lads.
In a statement by its Publicity Secretary, Mr. George Ukwuoma-Nwogba, the PDP lamented the wild display of hatred shown by those who killed the young men and in the bizarre manner they did, saying; “That act is an anti-thesis to the efforts at value re-orientation being championed by the administration in the state.”
As it is now, the eyes of all Nigerians and the international community is on the security agencies in Rivers State, especially, the police, as well as the judiciary to ensure that while investigation into the extra-judicial murder of the undergraduates is conducted with the urgency it requires, there should also be speedy trials of the suspects arrested in connection with the ugly incident.
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